A lawyer representing Hasbro declined to provide more information, and the company's legal team has yet to file a response to the allegations.

One lawyer said such disputes were not unusual, but seldom made it into the public eye.

Image copyrightHasbroImage caption
The CSS (cascading style sheet) for the My Little Pony site refers to the Generation B font

"More than 99% of all intellectual property cases are settled well before they ever end up in court," said Dai Davis, a solicitor who previously represented a company whose font was used on an American clothes-maker's products without permission.

"Generally, they are less emotionally charged than 'who said what to whom' cases because they are more factually based - either someone has a unique typeface that has been taken and used, or not."